On 2007-10-20 21:37, bigbrotiki wrote:I remember my urban archeological foray of wading through that lagoon (the water was that shallow) with Doug Miller to get past the construction fences into the closed down Lanai/Waikikian compound, only to be surprised by a guard that escorted us out emptyhanded. It was several Hawaii visits later that Doug found some of the lamps and door masks from the rooms at a used furniture store...not in Honululu, but in Hilo on the Big Island. I got to take some home to LA.

Ah, you mean these:

... from Doug's house. Interesting, either you or he has the little one mounted upside down.

I got a bootleg of the Made for TV film "And The Sea Will Tell" (1991) and one of the opening scenes has a woman being chased from the beach side of the Tahitian Lanai and Waikikian. Here are a few stills

I am so happy that I could secure the Waikikian/Tahitian Lanai its proper place in Tiki history with the two double pages in TIKI MODERN! I kept them out of the BOT, because in order to demonstrate that Tiki Style was an American mainland invention, I made sure that all BOT material was 98% mainland made (x-ept the few cool Coco Joe's wall hangings), to not water down and confuse the issue. But the place was an inspiration to the mainland style for sure.

On 2007-12-06 23:44, bigbrotiki wrote:I am so happy that I could secure the Waikikian/Tahitian Lanai its proper place in Tiki history with the two double pages in TIKI MODERN! I kept them out of the BOT, because in order to demonstrate that Tiki Style was an American mainland invention, I made sure that all BOT material was 98% mainland made (x-ept the few cool Coco Joe's wall hangings), to not water down and confuse the issue. But the place was an inspiration to the mainland style for sure.

Would be great to resuscitate the image links at the beginning of this thread! How about it, Zulu, can you revive those?

Here are some more pics of the Waikikian from various sources. Some of these may be familiar views, but this thread seems a reasonable place to post em.

The iconic view of the Waikikian hyperbolic paraboloid lobby (is that what you call that shape?). I believe some of these classic images were taken by photographer Robert Wenkam.

This looks the same as the last shot, but if you scrutinize it, it's slightly different (look at the bending girl's posture and arms).

Closeup of part of the last shot

Another view, rotating around the side

Yet another view, looking outward from the grounds

Another closeup, on some tikis from the preceding image

Inside the lobby

Closeup from the previous lobby photo

View of a guest room - nice tiki guardian outside on the left

Kinda grainy pic of the walkway, from the 80s

Beachbum Berry has a couple more nice shots in his Ed Brownlee chapter of Sippin Safari, including a wider shot of that photo inside the lobby and also a closeup of one of the tikis (also referenced by Sabu on this Canlis thread, btw).

It’s always a treat to see that place in its flower. In the early 90’s most of the time a few of the signature neon “Tahitian Lanai” sign letters were burnt out and neglected. Also that Canlis tiki in the gardens looks like a more stylized version of the ones that adorned the windows of the more abstract “tire tread” variety, great pictures.